Do you and your band want to tour Canada? Well then you better have one hell of a deep pocket, because it's going to cost you and arm and a leg (maybe more)!
According to the Calgary Herald:
The new rules, which quietly came into effect July 31, will double, triple or even quadruple the cost of bringing in international artists to perform in bars, restaurants or coffee shops, affecting such local venues for music lovers as The Palomino, Ironwood, Broken City, Blues Can, and the Ship & Anchor, and their counterparts across the country.
The regulations require that any venue with a primary business other than music but which also books bands or performers must now pay an application fee of $275 per musician and those travelling with the band (tour manager, sound person, guitar tech, etc.) when it applies for a Labour Market Opinion, or LMO, to allow those outside workers to perform and work in their establishment. That's also in addition to an extra $150 for each approved musician and crew member's work permit.
Prior to the changes, the fee was simply $150 per band member, maxing out at $450, and that was a one-time fee for them to simply enter the country, which allowed venue owners across Canada to share the nominal cost or book them separately at no extra charge.
What the article fails to mention, and probably because there's no rational explanation for it, is why in the living hell Canada just up and decided to make bands pay way more than they had been paying. Maybe there's some really good economic reason dealing with the failure of local clubs or excess damage to property done by bands? Obviously I'm spitballing at a huge, huge pile of potential reasons here, but still… Canada, what the hell are you doing!
The worst part of this is it will affect the smaller bands the most. Large bands of the stature of say, Lamb of God, will not be affected because they sell out huge venues in Canada and I'm sure their promoters will eat the extra fees. However, when a small band is hoping to play in front of 50 or 100 Canadians, that will pose a much greater financial risk.
There is a petition being passed around, which you can sign here, hoping to get the Canadian government to rethink these plans.
